Carnivorous animals, primarily dogs, have a basic instinctive urge to chew. Chew toys have been used for many years to channel that instinctive urge to chew in a healthy direction and provide them with exercise for their jaws. “Chew toys” are intended to be chewed by a dog for an extended period of time, and should be distinguished from “treats” which are intended to be chewed by a dog for a relatively short period of time and then digested. Chew toys typically fall within two distinct categories: (i) those consisting of synthetic materials, and (ii) those consisting, at least in part, of animal skin, animal parts or the like. However, as explained below, existing chew toys have various disadvantages making them unsatisfactory in many instances.
Prior chew toys have been manufactured utilizing rubber, polyurethane, latex, nylon, other plastics, and other types of synthetic material. While chew toys consisting of these synthetic materials may be long lasting and resistant to disintegration, they are typically hard, odorless and tasteless. Most dogs do not get excited about these chew toys because of their odorless and tasteless aspects. Accordingly, many dogs will not chew on these toys or will only chew on these toys for short periods of time even when the toy is bone shaped. Further, the synthetic nature of these chew toys makes them difficult and dangerous to digest. Small pieces of these chew toys which tend to break off can potentially cause digestive dangers to the animals. Additionally, these chew toys are generally not biodegradable and are therefore bad for the environment.
Chew toys have also been comprised of portions of deceased animals. Of these types of chew toys, rawhide is a commonly used material. Rawhide chew toys include rolled rawhide sheets, or rolled and knotted rawhide sheets. Rawhide toys are more appealing to dogs and easier to chew and digest than synthetic chew toys. However, many dogs find these rawhide chew toys lacking of substantial flavor and odor. Accordingly, many dogs become bored with these rawhide chew toys and will at most only chew on them for short periods of time.
Some manufacturers have coated or basted the rawhide chew toys with various flavors to provide additional odor or flavor and entice dogs to chew longer. For example, some rawhide chew toys are basted in a hickory-flavored marinade to enhance their flavor and odor. Other rawhide chew toys have been coated in a cheese-flavored substance. However, these basted and coated chew toys are disadvantageous for many pet owners as they can stain carpets and other items in a home. Further, these coated and basted chew toys are undesirable for many pet owners because they become malodorous to humans.
Chew toys have also been formed of rawhide pieces. These chew toys are sometimes referred to as “munchies.” One method of making a chew toy is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,069 to Axelrod. Axelrod discloses rawhide comminuted or chopped into small particles. The rawhide particles can be mixed with casein and gelatin to facilitate molding, and other additives may be added as an attempt to make the chew toy more nutritious and attractive to a dog. The mixture is then molded into a variety of shapes including bone shaped. One problem with the chew toy of Axelrod, is that it does not effectively entice and capture a dog's curiosity for a long period of time. This problem occurs because any attractiveness additive is dispersed throughout the molded chew toy such that further chewing does not reveal further benefit.
The munchy disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,929 to Lehn et al., suffers from a similar problem. In Lehn et al., a mixture of ground rawhide, starch and flavoring additive is extruded to form an elongate munchy. The flavoring additive can be fishmeal or synthetic flavoring such as chicken, chocolate or beef flavor, and is dispersed throughout the mixture. However, a dog's natural curiosity is not aroused since further chewing does not increase the flavor or aroma, nor does further chewing visually reveal anything new. Similar, to Axelrod's chew toy, the munchy of Lehn et al. does not capture a dog's curiosity for a long period of time.
Natural bones that have hard exteriors and bone marrow in an inside cavity can capture a dog's attention. A dog will spend a lot of time biting and licking a natural bone attempting to extract all of the marrow from an inside cavity of the bone. The interior marrow creates a visual and olfactory puzzle that a dog will spend hours trying to solve; that is, how to get the marrow out. The problem is that there are several hazards to natural bones. First, natural bones can carry bacterial or other pathological diseases that can be harmful to dogs and humans. Second, natural bones can fracture into shards that are dangerous for a dog to swallow. Third, natural bones are too hard for mature healthy dogs to safely chew, and even more so for puppies with new teeth, dogs that have weak or injured jaws, and older dogs to safely chew. Fourth, natural bones have fatty oils that can stain and damage household carpeting and other items in a home, still further the smell can be too strong for inside of a home.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,653 to Sherrill discloses a chew toy for animals, including a jerky member wrapped in a rawhide sheet member. However, rawhide sheet members also can be hard and therefore difficult to chew for puppies, older dogs, and dogs that have weak or injured jaws.
Accordingly, a chew toy that overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art is thus needed.